Kofi Annan
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Kofi Atta Annan
The Nobel Peace Prize 2001
Born: 8 April 1938, Kumasi, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
Died: 18 August 2018, Bern, Switzerland
Residence at the time of the award: Ghana
Role: U.N. Secretary-General
Prize motivation: “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world”
Prize share: 1/2
Africa's Foremost Diplomat
In 2001, its centennial year, the Nobel Committee decided that the Peace Prize was to be divided between the United Nations (UN) and the world organization's Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. The choice showed the Committee's traditional support for organized cooperation between states.
Kofi Annan was born in Ghana in 1938. His father was a chief and governor of the Ashanti province. He attended a Methodist school and a technical college in his home country before continuing his academic studies in Switzerland and the United States.
Annan pursued a varied career in the UN system until 1993, when he was appointed Deputy Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations, a position he held until 1997, when he took over as the United Nations' seventh Secretary-General.
Kofi Annan was awarded the Peace Prize for having revitalized the UN and for having given priority to human rights. The Nobel Committee also recognized his commitment to the struggle to contain the spreading of the HIV virus in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
